I’ve mentioned user experience (UX) before and now there’s another term to be aware of: customer experience (CX). The main reason I think this is noteworthy is that often UX and CX are the same thing; this is particularly true as to when the experience starts.
The best approach to crafting a good experience starts before the experience proper.
Here’s a post from CX Journey blog that captures this approach:
he customer’s experience doesn’t start when the salesperson comes calling or when your customer first purchases your product. The customer experience begins long before that, when the customer realizes he has a need. By the time you try to sell something to him, it’s too late.
If you take a look at the customer experience lifecycle that I depicted in a previous post, you’ll see that the lifecycle begins when the Need arises. That Need begets Awareness (sometimes it comes after Awareness). If you’re communicating, if you’re getting the word out (through messaging and through actions) about who your company is, what your products do, how your services differ, what value you bring, what needs you meet or problems you solve, and, most importantly, what you stand for, your customers will never recite the words from the Man in the Chair.